Playing for a living?

[QnA]

Has anyone tried playing for a living in B&M casinos? I'm currently trying to eke out a living at 3/6 while also building bankroll to eventually move up to 5/10. If anyone has experience in doing this, I'd greatly appreciate any information towards their experience. I'd like to know how much I can expect to make; the hours I need to put in on a daily or weekly basis; and at what limits I need to reach for this to be viable. Thanks.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

It's pretty hard to make a living at stakes lower than 10/20.

[slavic]

it's hard at 10/20 too if the players are any good.

[squiffy]

Given the advice of Kurns and Slavic, maybe it's best for you to look into online 3-6. At Party you can play 2-3 tables simultaneously. While this may still not be enough to make a living, it will probably be more money per hour than one live table.

How long have you been playing live 3-6? And what are your results so far.

You should experiment with internet play, where you can also earn a bonus, and compare your earn rates.

[squiffy]

Also, not saying you should give up live play. Just suggesting that online play may supplement your income, increase your bankroll, and give you more experience faster, so that you can move up more rapidly to higher limits in live games.

[Gabe]

Let me tell ya, it's hard at any limit.

[soda]

I started out at 3/6 B and M about 2.5 years ago. I played constantly - all the time. Some weeks were over 80 hour weeks.

Once the BR got high enough, I played the 9/18 at Commerce. I was quite good. Earning almost 2 BBs an hour for nearly a year. I took too many vacations and got my BR down to only 3k during a bad swing that brought me down to 1.7 BB per hour. 1.7 BB per hour!! And I was struggling? I quit. The slow pace of the game and the continuous drawouts were getting to me.

As a last ditch effort I took some small amount of money - just a few hundred and started focusing on online play. It was a good move. I started in the NL games on Paradise and did quite well there. I got up to $1500 almost 2k per week. A buddy and I actually went to Europe for 6 weeks. That was a good time! Poker offers opportunities like this that other jobs do not allow.

When I got back from Europe in June, my BR was low again, about $1500 - but with online play - that's huge. Just start out small and work up. I wasn't really all that worried. In a B&M game - you'd lose that in a hearbeat.

So, I went from NL on Paradise to NL on Party. I started doing even better. I had my first +3k day in August. That was great. Won a tourney and picked up $800 in side games on top of it. Great day.

Went from NL on Party to Limit games. I found that these were even more profitable. Now, I'm averaging well over 1k a day. And I don't play nearly as much as I used to. An 8 hour day for me is unusual now. Before an 8 hour day was unheard of, but only because I was putting in 12 or 14.

My advice to you is this. Play online. Forget about the B&M game. It's difficult, very difficult. The slow pace makes your bad swings last for weeks, sometimes months. I can play 6000+ hands in a weekend now. That's over a month's B&M hands in just a couple of days. When I think back to my last tough streak online - I lost $600 over two days last week - that would be like playing in a casino for weeks and losing - I don't wish that on you. Play online and your bad weeks and months will be just bad days.

That's my experience. I hope you can draw from it.

soda

[GoSox]

Great post Soda, what tables are you playing ?? 100NL, 3/6, etc... curious which you find the most profitable. Are you sticking with Party or do you have a backup site ?

thanks

[soda]

I'm playing the 10/20 Limit tables right now. Pretty much everything at Party is highly profitable.

While Party was down yesterday, I went to Stars and had the most amazing session at the lower limits. Unfortunately, I cleared out most of my BR there after I decided to stick with Party. I might need to build it back up now. I also keep a small BR at Paradise.

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Stars has a surprising number of people on it lately, so I might need to keep an eye on them.

If Party opens up a 200 NL game, I might go to that - but with what they offer right now, the limit games seem to make the most money for the skilled player.

soda